Mhsc

Lavia is still out bro. Also did you just casually drop Cole Palmer?

Idk you saw something different to me, he looked very mid to me. He had a few miniature moments that were good, but he is not technical enough, his passing is simply bad. Idk where to look up his goal history properly but https://www.whoscored.com/Players/400166/Fixtures/Mohammed-Kudus this page shows his last goals for West Ham, 5 vs TSC Backa Topola and Freiburg. Not sure where else he scored but I know he scored the odd screamer - as mid players sometimes do. Never should have been anywhere near Chels and sporting director W to not proceed on this one imo - albeit not a terrible player by any means, just mid, found his level at WH.

So glad we did not buy Kudus, he is so mid

That Haaland guy is pretty good, should have put a bid in. For all the talk of Pep being a genius manager (true no doubt), City's habit of buying generational talents that are pure cheat codes has been incredible.

Probably ran out of credits with a PR agency or the guys that do the website No club keeps its staff as busy as ours during the transfer window I swear 😂

Arsenal wasted at least 2 minutes on goal kicks and throw ins, ref ends game on the dot anyway. He had a bad game tbh. Brighton did not impress me at all, aside from Mitoma, who they should have given the ball to more often... and definitely not subbed off.

Called it

I really doubt Osimhen will be training alone at Napoli til January, probably he goes to Saudi on a perm still, or goes on loan to somewhere like Portugal, Holland etc with Napoli covering 2/3rds of his wages with him back up for sale in Jan or summer. I imagine Napoli would want to send him out to wherever he can absolutely farm goals (some crazy attacking side who scores a lot but concede a lot?) and pump his value back up. If he doesn't score a lot or get injured though they are really fucked - and no way they can afford to carry his salary and lose all that transfer money long term either, it would cripple them for a long time. Hope we do not go back in for him though, he had his chance to play for Chels.

Positives: - Cut throat getting rid of the dross at all costs, prioritising technical skill. - Took advantage of good opportunities in the market, on excellent terms, for Sancho, Felix, Guiu & Tosin which upgrade our bench which was chronically super bad last year. - Did not panic buy Osimhen, did not cave to stupid demands from Napoli, did not cave to stupid demands from Osimhen. Simple truth was there all along: he's simply not that good. We were only club in Europe in the end who got serious about him - which is just classic us really, everyone else knows better. He's extremely injury prone, 1 good season in his whole career, skull in literal pieces, can't pass, has Lukaku personality vibes, way more red flags than any other player we've looked at in ages. Given the Chilly+Sterling situations, it is obvious we should not go crazy on Osimhen especially without CL football and in PSR era - Neto + Veiga look like gems, probably XI material, probably both big upgrades Negatives - Didn't convincingly sort out XIs joint number 1 problem which is CB and GK (probably, club obviously have faith in the group - we are all more dubious, I think...) - Allegedly paying half of Sterling's wages while he plays for Arsenal, and just kicked that can down the road - he will cost us the same as Lavia, Noni and NJ combined per week to NOT play for us. Left it very late to start shopping him around. If we had forced him to train alone from day 1, by the end of the window surely we've found a buyer for him. - Failed to get rid of Chilwell, who will probably be almost impossible to get rid of, as he looks like a Championship player but on 200k a week and unable to stay fit for more than a few weeks at a time. Hopefully we will at least ship him off to Turkey (maybe Jose would take him?) and cover 50%+ of his wages again. - Have not sorted out a physical, classic number 9 for the squad: looked a bit at Sesko (chose to stay for another year), Samu (collapsed, probably for best), Duran and of course Osi but ended up with only 18 year old Guiu. We have to hope that NJ stays fit but we do have Felix false 9 as option now and he is very good finisher if he is kept in or around the penalty box instead of playing out wide. - Chukwuemeka, Casadei, Kellyman, Deivid Washington, Angelo Gabriel, Tyrique George, Acheompong all still with us but very unlikely to get much game time - all of them could have done with a loan move. Hopefully we can still find clubs for them in the leagues that are still open for business but obviously a Championship loan would have been the ideal for most of them. No idea where Chuk goes. - What was the point of KDH?

Ahhh 13 makes more sense. I don't even rate him at 13 tbh 😂

That is really insane, no where near Conor's level

Definitely priority number 1. Don't want to go into the season carrying an upset group in a bomb squad. Get them all out on loan deals at minimum, us covering part of wages, whatever it takes - deal with it in next transfer windows when we have more time. But don't enter the season with a toxic problem in the club.

In terms purely of the ability to sign the players they want to sign, I meant. Very few players have turned their nose up to us (which has surprised us all a bit, I think)

The clubs approach has worked pretty well so far, sure Michael Olise picked another option but that was not just based on wages, also guaranteed titles and CL football, biggest team in Germany etc. Didn't stop Felix or others signing and taking pay cuts. Sancho going to do the same. Club has reduced wage bill drastically and has a clear philosophy on wages that nearly all players buy into, only those with a weak mentality (don't back themselves to deliver) or want to join purely for money object to it. At any rate, as far as we can see at the moment the blocker is more Napoli than our negotiation with VO.

I'm glad you're not in charge of negotiations, I'll say that much!

Have we? It has been a half hearted search at best. Now we're seeing if we can pick up a good deal on deadline day. Club clearly doesn't think it is priority / urgent. Just nice if we can get a good deal.

I feel this

I agree with the clubs approach of offering sensible base salaries with lucrative add ons based on personal + team performance. No doubt if we qualify for CL and he scores lots of goals he becomes one of the best paid players in the world. If not, he earns a sensible base salary for a player that is not as good as he thought he was. If you back yourself to perform, you take the contract. If you don't, you've got a weak mentality and aren't joining for the right reasons.

Its not a failure to not do deals that turn out to be bad deals. It is a failure to make a bad deal just to get a player in.

If I were Man Utd I would offer to loan Sterling with option to buy if we'll loan Sancho with obligation to buy. Then send him back to us in 12 months and find someone actually good.

I just posted to explain please read a few posts up. We made a promise to him that he will get some portion of money (the sign on fee) as long as he does not request a transfer. Simple as. We promised it and we should pay it. That's how contracts work and the right thing to do. The rest he will obviously lose and will be on him to get from his new club.

I feel the same. VO would be nice if the deal is right - I'm not convinced he is 100% nailed on starter for us, but good competition for NJ and improves the squad. Duran for similar reasons would be nice, any number 9 who is physical and a bit of a bully would add some nice variety to our squad of Mr Nice Guy forwards. We could use someone with a bit of an edge to them. TBH a world class CB would make more difference than a number 9

Remember that VO's salary at Napoli is a fake salary. He was given this deal to shut him up and they never expected him to make that money for more than a few months. It was to inflate the salary he'd get next, as he assumed he would never be asked to take a pay cut. Its far more than he's worth and they & we know it. The only place that will pay him ridiculous money will be Saudi. If he wants that, it is his choice and I wont blame him - that's a different level of wealth. Depends on his motivations and life ambitions. Obviously either way he is sorted for life financially. But that is clearly a one way road: no one is going to buy him back out of Saudi and put him on any kind of serious wages when he's not played proper football in years. I don't blame the guy either way tbh.

The Sterling situation is very easy to understand. He got some kind of sign on fee for joining. Probably many millions. The sign on fee is not paid all at once but distributed over time. If as a player you hand in a transfer request then you waive your right to the rest of the sign on fee. If the club instead chooses to sell you then you are still entitled to it. We owe him whatever is left of his sign on bonus. That is all. Everything else is on him to negotiate with his new club.